On a whim — spontaneity is my middle name, after all — I decided to snag a couple tickets to tonight’s Eastern League All-Star Game (AA) in beautiful downtown Trenton, New Jersey. At least a few of our readers out there aren’t just Google-driven searches stopping by trying to hunt down the latest draft signing updates or gratuitous pictures of pretty girls; we’ve got some hardcore prospect followers who actually keep up with players once they turn pro. I do try my best at staying up with all levels of baseball’s prospectdom, honest, but sometimes trying to track all these players and all these teams and all these levels of competition leaves me disoriented and completely overwhelmed, lost in a sea of seemingly never-ending prospects. Chuck me a life preserver of knowledge and let me know if I’ve overlooked any big names to watch heading into tonight’s game; I’ll be forever grateful. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Northern Division —> Zach McAllister, Anthony Slama, Junichi Tazawa (not playing), Madison Bumgarner (not playing), Brian Jeroloman, Jesus Montero, Josh Thole (not playing), Lars Anderson, Whit Robbins

Southern Division —> Daniel Moskos, Joe Savery, Vance Worley, Hector Rondon (not playing), Alex Avila, Carlos Santana, Brian Friday, Beau Mills, Quintin Berry, Mike Taylor, Nick Weglarz

My attempt to tie this back into the overarching theme of the website — that would be the draft, if the name of the site wasn’t enough of a giveaway — centers on a couple of the college guys I remember well from my days working on the periphery of the baseball industry before I started up the site. Ah yes, those were the days. I remember seeing Jeroloman, Robbins, and Moskos play live and in color on more than a few occasions back in their carefree college years. Come to think of it, those were my carefree college years as well – no student loan payments, no rent checks, no 403(b)’s, no heightened expectations to straighten up and fly right. Those really were the days. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I wrote some nasty things about Jeroloman (couldn’t hit), some glowing things about Robbins (as pretty an amateur lefty stroke as I had seen in person, damn near almost brought a tear to my eye), and some largely apathetic things about Moskos (mechanical issues, little projection left in his arm, inconsistent stuff…but still a varied enough repertoire that I thought he could be a back of the rotation big league starting pitcher with time). It’ll be cool to see how my opinion has changed of each young fella, not to mention the fun it’ll be to check out some of the really big boppers (Montero, Anderson, Santana, Mills, Taylor, and Weglarz) scheduled to appear in the game.

So, who am I missing? Or, who on the list is someone I should pay extra special attention to? Or, should I just skip the game entirely and see what other fun, legal or otherwise, I can conjure up in Trenton on a Wednesday night?